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The forum has limited appeal no matter what ads are coming up, what server it's hosted on or what format the information is displayed in. Remember the state of paintball, AGD, and the marker we all love so dearly. There is nothing to draw non AGD fans here and there really would be a tough time to find anything. IF AGD were active in manufacturing anything paintball there would be a draw for the product support but alas...and the difficulty a wanting to register member must endure to actually get registered here will dissuade all but die-hards anyway... seems you have to know someone who knows someone to get a registration approved by a MOD and word on other sites is it's been this way for a long time. If there is a prayer at getting new people here registered to do more then lurk new registrations must be dealt with appropriately and more timely. This situation makes the site look dead to outsiders, and the community look "closed" and snobby.

You can host a pretty massive website for a lot less these days than one could back on 06 when TK was quoted on the costs. Company I was working for was hosted on a virtual dedicated for $400/year with over 5ooGB storage and that was an older server - newer hardware means cheaper hosting costs. Godaddy is a great host even if you dislike their political views. Dreamhost (mentioned before) is so so rated in what I have seen.

I agree with Luke, adding a required membership will be the death of the site/forum - there is not enough content to create traffic from enough people. PBNB and MCB have a much wider audience to draw from. Advertising and user donations are the only viable sources.

We have become a nitch community. I'm all for saving the data here, and moving it to a cheaper host, especially if TK is still paying that exorbitant fee every month, however recently loosing my job precludes me from donating much in the way of funds...I can click ad links, but not for milfs, ukraninian women or such... I can't afford a divorce either

I wholeheartedly agree that a required paid membership would be a very bad move. I still believe, however, that a premium membership, or support member or whatever it might be called for sure would bring in a decent sum of yearly $$$. Especially if there were perks apart from bragging rights, such as membership only deals on AGD apparel. Ukranian women might not be the answer we're looking for, even though some of us are looking for Ukranian women, or so it seems.

Got to disagree here. Forums aren't a thing of the past, they've really come to the forefront of topical internet dialogue for the sharing of common interests and ideas. And I don't know why you'd want something that is decentralized. That would prohibit everyone from finding like-minded individuals and relevant information.

I mean, once you have a group of like-minded people who all want to converse about the same topics, then yeah you could go to something a little more fluid like a Facebook group or something. But for the purpose of archiving information and ideas to make them convenient and easy to find and join in, nothing beats a good ol' message board.

Itís only popular because itís popular.

The two things centralized in the current setup are the storage/bandwidth and the moderation, both of which I would think can and should be decentralized. The fact that it is so centralized doesnít help people find like-minded individuals or relevant information, especially if the single server goes down (look what happened to Simonized), or the owners donít feel like paying money for the storage/bandwidth anymore, or new users or certain posts need to be approved by mods, or something silly like that.

The real reason to enforce so much literal centralization is control. Say if youíre a vendor (or just your garden variety megalomaniac) and you want to impose control over customer's content, access, interface -- the entire user experience. From a business perspective, this is understandable.

With the status of AGD as it is, it's hard to make a case for why it needs to be this way.

Iíve been looking for a replacement, but so far havenít seen anything other than what Iíve already mentioned. I am distinctly, specifically *not* talking about Facebook.

With the status of AGD as it is, it's hard to make a case for why it needs to be this way.

I guess weíll be holding on to the old model a bit longer.

I have to agree with him on these points

Also , i never understood why there are pics of guys up on the banner( rt/hand corner)
that are from 1990's ?
Shouldn't we be adding guys up there like "BIG EVIL" for example ,that are "active" on here ?
You know @ least giving the attempt of "mixing it up " a little
Maybe some variety & fairness ?? Just a thought

Btw its not going to matter what we did to this site @ this moment in economic time.Lets be realistic, cuz paintball & other hobbies are down across the board ,and there are some fancy sites out there we all know that .
I could make this site dance & do "Global thermal Nuclear war games" if i could ,& thats not going to change a thing as far as AGD revenue

My .02 cents:
*I think paying a fee to be a member is a mistake over all.
*I think there should be enough advertising for the site to pay the yearly hosting fees. (Add more if needed.)
*So that leaves us in need of raising funds for software and hardware.
A. Tom needs to set up a PayPal account for straight out donations.
B. We can hold online raffles to raise additional funds.
C. I have no ideas for labor and regular maintenance.

I have no problem chipping in a few dollars and I can also chip in parts to help raise some money in the raffles. Additional raffle donations can come from members that have an overflow of used parts, for most that wont be a problem.
We need some real number$ so we have a place to start.

Shouldn't we be adding guys up there like "BIG EVIL" for example ,that are "active" on here ?
I have always thought there should be pic updates, show the mag in action! Perhaps a video how to and look what i have tab?

i like this idea also, lets all chip in and get some well over due updates... if we can cut out the fees, but if there was a option to be a "supporting member" i would do that, keeping in mind that u can roam free if u like just a little plus for additional support!

AGD was a super power in the paintball world and why? because the design is simple, reliable, low cost and fast. name one other paintball marker that has all 4 of those attributes.

and then came AO. Tom would say what should I make next? and we would tell him. or he would say look what I made and we would go, THATS AWESOME or I dont like that at all.

Ideas like the deldrin bolt which died quickly because we the site put its through the ringer and found the fatal flaw... who found the flaw? WE DID!

Automags have become IMO the longest lived single paintball gun thats still competitive and the FIRST open source paintball marker!

In AO you have everything to keep a company going. look what Luke, hill, renie and eeryone else has done for the mag, AGD stepped back and we forced its evolution.

Long live AGD, Long live the MAG.

Let us design the future of this company YOU founded Tom. You will will be amazed at what a group of fanatics can acheive with the permission to do so

BRANCH OUT!!! as we have shown that the mag is customizable. he made it and perhaps can breath new life in to it! Just a new marker style would b cool... they all have the same motor.... idk if u can out do the xvalve

BRANCH OUT!!! as we have shown that the mag is customizable. he made it and perhaps can breath new life in to it! Just a new marker style would b cool... they all have the same motor.... idk if u can out do the xvalve

I agree. TK adding something new to AGD would do just that.

Making it mandatory to become a paying member is a bad idea any way you slice it. However making it an option to pay to help out AO as a whole is something I feel a lot of old schoolers would do here.

Oh, believe me, I have a major affinity for Tom and the brand he built. Hell, I've hung out with the guy multiple times. But let's face facts here - he's out of paintball (outside of the compressor project) and Dave's all we have left.

My biggest concern is the possibility of loosing old threads if we have a server crash and the speed of this site itself. Sending messages and also trying to open the site when there is a message window telling you have a new private message in your queue can take forever (on occasion).

For me itís more about preservation and not a new look. If a new look happens through the renovation thatís fine, but that is not the real motivation.

Originally Posted by AGD

Your lucky its here at all. We are one server crash away from oblivion. Tk

Well, a SQL database backup would prevent that - not sure how often that's done though.

I'm hoping a mod can either chime in here or somebody with connections to the hosting company pops in - I'd like to help and if necessary, spearhead this. But we have some standing questions that need answers.

I think Zupe has nothing to do with this site. I beleive it is still Tom's baby.
So, i second the lets get back on track.
First priority is a reliable site so this doesnt go bye bye. fancy stuff is not the primary objective.
I also, second someones idea of Tom setting up a paypal account for donations. IF Tom wants to do that....(if Tom could answer this)

I think Zupe has nothing to do with this site. I beleive it is still Tom's baby.
So, i second the lets get back on track.
First priority is a reliable site so this doesnt go bye bye. fancy stuff is not the primary objective.
I also, second someones idea of Tom setting up a paypal account for donations. IF Tom wants to do that....(if Tom could answer this)